H. Jack Geiger

H. Jack Geiger, MD, MSciHyg,[1][2][3][4] (born 1926)[5] is a founding member and past president of Physicians for Human Rights, a founding member and past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a founding member and past president of the Committee for Health in South Africa, and a founding member and national program coordinator of the Medical Committee for Human Rights.[6]

The last time I checked my textbooks the specific therapy for malnutrition was, in fact, food.

Geiger has led or participated in human rights missions for PHR, the United Nations, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science to former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Kurdistan, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and South Africa.[7][8] Most of his professional career has been focused on the related issues of health, poverty, and civil rights.[9][10] Geiger initiated the community health center model in the United States, founding and directing the nation's inaugural community health centers, the first in Columbia Point, Boston (1965) and the second in the Mississippi Delta (1966). These centers became models for what is now a national network of more than 1100 CHCs serving some 20 million low-income and minority patients.[11][12]

Geiger is a member of the Institute of Medicine, United States National Academy of Sciences, and the recipient of the IOM's highest honor, the Lienhardt Award for "outstanding contributions to minority health."[6] In recognition of his work on racial and ethnic discrimination in health care, the Congressional Black, Hispanic and Asian American Caucuses have created the H. Jack Geiger Congressional Fellowships on Health Disparities for young minority scholars.

Geiger is currently Professor Emeritus at the CUNY School of Medicine in New York City where he was a medical professor for many years.[13]

Education

Geiger began his career as a science journalist, where he was active in efforts to use science primarily in the service of human needs.[14] Geiger received his M.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1958.[15][16] He then trained in internal medicine on the Harvard Service of Boston City Hospital from 1958–64. During this period he also earned a degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, and was a Research Fellow, Research Training Program in Social Science and Medicine, Harvard University.

Relationship with actor Canada Lee

Canada Lee met and was an influence on H. Jack Geiger, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility. They met in 1940, when Geiger, a 14-year-old middle-class Jewish runaway, was backstage at a Broadway production of Native Son. Lee agreed to take Geiger in when he showed up at his door in Harlem asking for a place to stay. Geiger stayed with Lee for over a year (with the consent of Geiger's parents), and Lee took on the role of surrogate father. During his time with Lee, Geiger was introduced to people like Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, Richard Wright, and Adam Clayton Powell. After many years of varied experiences and an ongoing friendship with Lee, Geiger eventually became a journalist, then a doctor.

This event was recorded in an interview given by Jack Geiger on This American Life.

References
  1. "Page Not Found". RWJF. Archived from the original on 2019-09-16. Retrieved 2019-05-21.
  2. Geiger, H. Jack (1 November 2002). "Community-Oriented Primary Care: A Path to Community Development". American Journal of Public Health. 92 (11): 1713–1716. doi:10.2105/AJPH.92.11.1713. PMC 3221474. PMID 12406790.
  3. "PBS: Think Tank: Transcript for "Has Medicine Gone PC?"". www.pbs.org.
  4. "Against The Odds:Making a Difference in Global Health". www.nlm.nih.gov.
  5. Dittmer, John (1 July 2009). The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 63 – via Internet Archive.
  6. "Physicians for Human Rights". Archived from the original on 2010-06-29. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
  7. "Against The Odds:Downloads > Audio Tour". www.nlm.nih.gov.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-02-11. Retrieved 2010-03-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-12-09. Retrieved 2010-03-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2010-03-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2010-03-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2010-03-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2012-11-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. Lewenstein, Bruce V. (1987). 'Public Understanding of Science' in America, 1945–1965. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, p. 234
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-05-17. Retrieved 2012-04-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-10-13. Retrieved 2009-11-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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